Monday, October 19, 2009

Classical Conditioning - The Job of a Puppeteer






Clockwork Orange shows us how effective and inhumane classical conditioning can be. Of course, the method used in this movie was an extreme example of it, but it demonstrates how wrong this process can be. Classical conditioning takes away the freedom of choice. People have the right to choose everything they do in life and although some choices are more encouraged, no one can really make a decision for somebody else. However, this technique of learning aims to do exactly that. The prison guards weren't happy with the way Alex lived his life so they took him in a lab and created a new person. By making him watch movies of violence while he was tied down and nauseated, they were forcing him to associate that feeling of sickness with murder, rape, and any type of violence that one may encounter in the world. So when he faced these things on his own he would be overtaken by the feeling of nausea and he would be unable and unwilling to do these unforgivable acts.
They determined his actions for him and made sure that he would never do wrong again. He no longer has the choice to do good or evil; that choice was made for him. Because of this he ceased to be an individual and instead became somebody else's puppet - with the "doctors" holding the strings.

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